Wednesday Sep 8, 7:30PM : Ben Sollee's Ditch the Van Tour 2010
Tonight we welcome cellist, vocalist and songwriter Ben Sollee! Named one of the year's best unknown artists by NPR in 2007, Ben has since then garnered a national reputation for his percussive playing style, political activism, and unusual approach to touring. In 2009, hestrapped his cello to the back of a bicycle and rode from his home in Lexington, Kentucky to Bonnaroo, playing small towns along the way.
He knew he was onto something, taking the idea one step further and exploring 500 miles of the East Coast Greenway touring between Wilmington, NC and Jacksonville, Fla. a few months later for his winter tour. This year, Sollee takes on his largest challenge yet - the Ditch the Van Tour 2010, a transcontinental endeavor not reliant on the traditional modes of touring. Four regional tours, in which all touring members ride without the use of support vehicles, are linked together from San Diego on August 18th and ending in the capital of his beloved Commonwealth October 8th.
$10 donation requested. Thanks to One Less Car and the Young Sierrans for helping make this show possible!
www.bensollee.com
onelesscar.org
maryland.sierraclub.org/baltimore/youngsierrans/
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Thursday Sep 9, 7PM : The Network of Concerned Anthropologists presents The Counter-Counterinsurgency Manual
As the war in Afghanistan drones on, and the armed occupation of Iraq morphs into a more politically palatable "soft occupation" relying on private mercenaries and various forms of diplomatic and economic control, one can only expect an increase in the demand for imperial anthropologists, willing to deploy their professional training in the service of American geopolitical hegemony.
With the release in 2006 of the new Counterinsurgency Field Manual (as a joint U.S. Army/U.S. Marines publication), it became painfully apparent that upper echelons of the American military were deeply interested in finding ways to harness anthropological expertise as a part of their apparatus of strategic control. The strategy outlined in the Manual was put into practice with the launch of the controversial "Human Terrain System" teams, in which anthropologists are "embedded" within the combat structure of the U.S. military, but it has also appeared in more diffuse forms, as seen in the recent revelations about the role of the US military in funding and directing research into the human geography of Oaxaca's insurgent indigenous population.
The Network of Concerned Anthropologists, which believes that such practices are not only ineffective and dangerous, but a serious breach of the ethical constraints to which an academic discipline in the social sciences must subscribe, has been one of the most important critical voices in the struggle to "unembed" anthropology, and we're exceptionally excited to welcome NCA members David Price, Hugh Gusterson, Andrew Bickford, and David Vine for a discussion of their collectively authored book The Counter-Counterinsurgency Manual: Or, Notes on Demilitarizing American Society. Reception to follow.
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Saturday Sep 11, 7PM : Feeding the People's Goddess Gala
Feeding the People, a nonprofit serving diabetics, presents the first annual Goddess Gala: A fundraiser to empower low-income diabetics with meals, education, and support. Express your inner divinity at this unique costume ball, with music, dancing, delectable delights, silent auction, and a costume contest with local celebrity judges! Dress as your favorite goddess, god, fairy, sprite, nymph or other supernatural being! Tickets: $55; order online at www.feedingthepeople.org.
Feeding the People's mission is to develop and implement a research-based model of nutrition-related in-home care for under-served, low-income diabetics in order to reduce the incidence of diabetes and diabetes related illnesses in Maryland.
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Thursday Sep 16, 8PM : Mulatto Child: Voices from the Margins
Mulatto Child is a 45 minute solo performance where one man attempts to confront the status quo:
Black=Gangsta'. Chicano=Illegal Immigrant. Gay= Queen. Homeless=Lazy. Prostitute=Loves Sex. How about you? Do you like the way you're represented?
Mulatto Child is not designed to provide answers; it is intended to put stereotype into a position where it can't help but be confronted. Author and actor Paul Diem works from the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s strategy: "to use stereotypes and inflate them to huge proportions so that neither the audience nor the actors can avoid confronting them directly. By rendering these often inconspicuous images highly visible, [we] can then more easily parody them, question them, and tear them apart." Join in the conversation... laugh at the ridiculous construction.
See Mulatto Child - Voices From The Margins.
Paul Diem is a Baltimore native recently returned from graduate school in L.A., where Mulatto Child was created as a part of his master's thesis on the issue of stereotyped identity. When he last performed solo in Baltimore (2003), City Paper named it one of the Top 10 shows of the year. (The New America at The Top Floor).
$5 - $10 sliding scale donation requested, please and thank you!
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Wednesday Sep 22, 8PM : High Zero presents: Ghost Dancers
Imagination. The border between the "real" world and the primordial world of dreams, the collective subconscious, transmigration, past, future, and present. Music and dance. Sacred movement. The open door. For uncounted millennia, the ghost dance has been used by Indigenous peoples as a way to make contact with this part of themselves that exists beyond words and reason.
For one special night, acclaimed movement artist Claire Elizabeth Barratt and pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn will, through music and movement, explore the porous border and the fathomless universe in each of us that lies beyond.
$5 - $10 sliding scale donation requested. This concert is a special presentation of the 2010 High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music, taking place through September 26.
myspace.com/susanalcorn
www.highzero.org
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Saturday Oct 9, 6:30PM : Hard Hittin' Songs for Hard Hit People VI- A Benefit For Heart's Place Homeless Shelter
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Monday Oct 18, 7PM : Autonomous Education from Chiapas to Mexico City: Urban-Zapatista Links with Patricia Hernández
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Sunday Oct 24, 12PM : The 4th Annual DIY Fest (Do It Yourself Festival)!
The event is free (donations are greatly appreciated) and is open to anyone wanting to learn a new skill, teach or present one of their skills/hobbies or just check out what goes down at a DIY Fest! 12 - 6 pm.
We are currently seeking tablers and people to teach workshops. Wanna know more? Wanna teach a workshop or table? Check out our website at www.diyfest.org!
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Saturday Oct 30, 2PM : People's Assembly on Joblessness
Join the Job is a Right Campaign for their People's Assembly on Joblessness! 2 - 8 p.m., free and open to the public. Check back soon for more information!
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